Generation of 130-fsec midinfrared pulses

Rolland, C.; Corkum, P. B.

doi:10.1364/josab.3.001625

Cited by 77 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…When an intense femtosecond laser pulse interacts with a solid, its rising edge strongly ionizes the surface atoms, creating a layer of plasma with near-solid electronic density (∼ 10 23 cm −3 ), which becomes highly reflectivea so-called plasma mirror -for light at wavelengths greater than a few tens of nanometers [13,14,15,16,17].…”

Section: Light-driven Plasma Mirrorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attosecond control of collective electron motion in plasmas

et al. 2012

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Today, light fields of controlled and measured waveform can be used to guide electron motion in atoms and molecules with attosecond precision. Here, we demonstrate attosecond control of collective electron motion in plasmas driven by extreme intensity (≈ 10 18 W/cm 2 ) light fields.Controlled few-cycle near-infrared light waves are tightly focused at the interface between vacuum and a solid-density plasma, where they launch and guide subcycle motion of electrons from the plasma with characteristic energies in the multi-kiloelectronvolt range -two orders of magnitude more than what has been achieved so far in atoms and molecules. Basic spectroscopy of the coherent extreme ultraviolet radiation emerging from the light-plasma interaction allows us to probe this collective motion of charge with sub-100-attosecond resolution. This is an important step towards attosecond control of charge dynamics in laser-driven plasma experiments.Two major trends can nowadays be identified in the interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with matter. On the one hand, ultrahigh light intensities provided by multi-terawatt femtosecond lasers can be used to drive collective electron motion in plasmas up to the 0.1-1 gigaelectronvolt energy range [1], opening the way to very compact laser-based particle accelerators for nuclear and medical applications [2]. On the other hand, controlled few-cycle light waves can be used at moderate intensities to drive and probe the attosecond dynamics of few-electron motion in atoms [3,4,5,6], molecules [7,8] and condensed matter [9,10] -with typical energies * These authors contributed equally to this work. 1ranging between tens to a few hundred electronvolts [11]. Merging these two trends, i.e. using tailored waveforms of extreme intensity light to steer the collective motion of high-energy plasma electrons, will open brand new perspectives for imaging ultrafast charge dynamics during extreme intensity laser-plasma interactions. First experiments have already highlighted the need for waveform control when trying to reproducibly guide attosecond electronic processes in plasmas with intense few-cycle light fields [12]. For the first time, we use fully controlled few-cycle near-infrared (NIR) light fields of extreme intensity (10 18 W/cm 2 ) to reproducibly launch and probe collective electron motion at the interface between vacuum and a solid-density plasma with attosecond precision (Fig. 1a-b). Light-driven plasma mirrorsWhen an intense femtosecond laser pulse interacts with a solid, its rising edge strongly ionizes the surface atoms, creating a layer of plasma with near-solid electronic density (∼ 10 23 cm −3 ), which becomes highly reflectivea so-called plasma mirror -for light at wavelengths greater than a few tens of nanometers [13,14,15,16,17].During the interaction with the pulse, the plasma layer can only expand by a small fraction of the optical laser wavelength, λL, which leads to the formation of a very sharp interface with vacuum extending over a distance λL (Fig. 1b), typically of the order o...

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Section: Light-driven Plasma Mirrorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attosecond control of collective electron motion in plasmas

et al. 2012

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“…31 The technique has been applied since the 1970s, and was ͑among others͒ used for short-pulse production of CO 2 laser pulses. 32,33 The principle of SCS is that a pump beam excites a dense electron-hole plasma ͑free carriers͒ at the surface of a semiconductor. The pump beam can be either an electron beam, or ͑such as in this experiment͒ a laser beam at a central frequency above the band gap of the semiconductor.…”

Section: Experiment: Semiconductor Switching a Configuration Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At such high densities, the acceleration scheme is referred to as the self-modulated LWFA ͑SM-LWFA͒, since the laser pulse length is longer than the plasma wavelength ͑which results in a laser envelope modulation at the plasma wavelength͒. Section III presents the first measurement technique, semiconductor switching ͑SCS͒, [31][32][33] where the NIR pulse serves as a pump and the THz pulse as a probe beam. SCS is suitable for THz enve- lope characterization as well as establishment of THz-to-NIR synchronization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Terahertz radiation as a bunch diagnostic for laser-wakefield-accelerated electron bunches

et al. 2006

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Experimental results are reported from two measurement techniques ͑semiconductor switching and electro-optic sampling͒ that allow temporal characterization of electron bunches produced by a laser-driven plasma-based accelerator. As femtosecond electron bunches exit the plasma-vacuum interface, coherent transition radiation ͑at THz frequencies͒ is emitted. Measuring the properties of this radiation allows characterization of the electron bunches. Theoretical work on the emission mechanism is presented, including a model that calculates the THz wave form from a given bunch profile. It is found that the spectrum of the THz pulse is coherent up to the 200 m thick crystal ͑ZnTe͒ detection limit of 4 THz, which corresponds to the production of sub-50 fs ͑rms͒ electron bunch structure. The measurements demonstrate both the shot-to-shot stability of bunch parameters that are critical to THz emission ͑such as total charge and bunch length͒, as well as femtosecond synchronization among bunch, THz pulse, and laser beam.

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“…In the mid-infrared range (A x lop), pulses as short as 130fs, and containing only four optical cycles, were created decades ago [9] by the use of semiconductor switching. The generation of short Pulses with longer wavelength (in mid(far) infrared range with…”

Section: Frequency Upshift Of the Pulse Can Be Estimated By The Relatmentioning

confidence: 99%